Poor Boris. Subjected to both the BBC PM programme’s satire and an evisceration by Nick Cohen right here. I just hope that, in time, he will be able to overcome both of these slights.
If Boris was at fault it was in perhaps pretending to have an open mind on the issue of in-out. I have never known him to be anything other than viscerally, and cerebrally, antagonistic to Brussels and the EU. Perhaps he was waiting, like me, to see if Cameron really could bring something off. Something spectacular. It never seemed terribly likely, did it? But it was at least polite to wait. My own view is that given a few more months – which Cameron didn’t have – it might have been achievable. Europe is turning, is it not? Even if many of its politicians are oblivious. Even so, I don’t think Cameron has played his cards badly.
Or perhaps Boris was doing no such thing and it was simply a case of – as Nick stated – me, me, me. God preserve us from self-centred politicians who wish simply to advance their careers – whoever heard the like? My own view is that we are better off with politicians like that than the driven politicians, guided by destiny. Pragmatism is an indicator of common sense and tends to mean a safer and better world. Rather LBJ than Kennedy. Rather Brezhnev than Khrushchev. Rather Callaghan than Blair.
Boris has behaved reasonably well, for a feral, modern day politician. And on this issue I suspect that he is right. Rather link arms with Farage and the appalling Galloway than linking arms with Tim Farron and Anna Soubry.
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